


Cold Memories

by EHyde



Category: Akatsuki no Yona
Genre: Gen, Modern Reincarnation AU, Paranormal AU, but he's a ghost and he doesn't look any older than he does in canon so...yup, except not really Yona and Hak because they're reincarnations, no one else is going to die here, the only reason major character death is a warning is because Suwon is a ghost
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 03:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15134150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHyde/pseuds/EHyde
Summary: Yona and Hak have been reincarnated as Rina and Jin, two normal high school students in modern-day Kouka. But when Rina is on a class trip to Hiryuu Castle, she meets a ghost who seems to recognize her. Being haunted by her own personal ghost can be annoying, but Suwon is friendly, cheerful, helpful...and nothing like the ancient king in her history books. What connection does he have to Rina and Jin--and what secrets is he keeping?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (I chose the names Rina and Jin for Yona and Hak's modern reincarnations because Rina was the alias Yona used in Fuuga, and I read some trivia that Jin was originally going to be part of Hak's name before Kusanagi decided to shorten it to just Hak)

Lights flicker around her and a cold wind rushes through her hair. This definitely isn’t the way to the gift shop. This part of the castle gives off a distinct feeling of  _ off limits _ ...but didn’t the guide say to come down this way? Rina sees movement through an open door and ducks inside. Maybe whoever’s in here can tell her how to get back to the group. “H-hello?” But the dusty old chamber is empty. Surely those shadows she’d seen weren’t just the wind in the curtains. “Is someone here?” Just as she turns to leave the empty room, she feels a cold brush of fingers on her shoulder, and spins back around. “Wh--who are you?”

But the young man standing behind her isn't scary at all. A bit strange--he’s dressed in traditional clothing, but this is a historical building, after all. His eyes widen as she turns. “Are you a reenactor? I didn't mean to interrupt a photoshoot, if that's what this is...”

“Yona,” he says. “You're Yona.”

“N--no, you're mistaken.” This is weird. But she takes a deep breath. He hasn't done anything bad, and she still needs to find her way back. “Can you show me how to get back to the gift shop?”

“The...gift shop?” 

“Or the main entrance?”

“Ah...I can try, but...you see, I can't leave this place.”

Well, that won't do. She takes him by the hand. “If you get in trouble, we'll just tell them I made you come with me,” she says, and steps out the door.

Behind her, the man hesitates. She turns back to see him, one foot out the door, looking far more startled than he has any reason to be. He's holding her hand tight, and his grip is freezing cold. “Yona,” he says again. “You  _ are _ Yona.”

“No, I'm…” She hesitates. Does she really want to give this weird stranger her name? “Which way is it?” she asks instead.

Her guide takes the lead, but he never lets go of her hand. 

When she sees her classmates again, none of them appear to notice the stranger in historic dress, and though she only turns away for an instant to explain herself to her teacher, when she looks back, the strange young man is gone.

* * *

She’s thinking  _ ghost _ well before she sees him again, standing over her seat on the train back to Fuuga. Not watching her, though--he’s staring out the windows at the mountains rushing by. Rina nudges her seatmate. “That guy right there—”

“Kan?” She names the classmate on the other side of the aisle. “What about him?”

_ She really can’t see him.  _ “Nevermind,” Rina says, and just then, if any more confirmation was needed, another passenger walks down the aisle and steps straight through the man.

That seems to startle him--he glances around the train, and then his eyes catch on Yona. “What is this?” he asks.

She doesn’t want to seem like she’s talking to herself, not in front of all her classmates, so she gets out her notebook and starts to write.  _ Are you a ghost? _

“Yes,” he answers, no attempt at hiding anything.

She takes a deep breath before putting pen to paper again.  _ Are you following me because I freed you from that room? _ If horror movies have taught her anything at all, it’s that setting ghosts free is definitely bad--even if this one seems nice.

“Ah, you see...I don’t think that just anyone could have set me free.”

Right...he called her by a different name. And nice or not, being haunted by a ghost who thinks they have a connection can’t be good.  _ I’m not who you think I am, _ she writes.  _ So please leave. _

“Yona…” he begins, then sighs. “You’re right. I'll leave you alone.” He flickers away and Rina almost calls out  _ wait! _ because she  _ is _ curious--but he appears solid again before she can speak. “Before I go, would you tell me what this is? This carriage.”

Oh--he really is from way back in history.  _ A train, _ she writes. Then she adds _ Kuuto to Fuuga in three hours. _

“Amazing!” He flashes her a brilliant smile, and when he really does vanish, Rina almost regrets it.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, mom? Do you suppose ghosts get lonely?” All the way home, Rina hadn’t been able to put it out of her mind--she’d met a real ghost, a real, historic ghost, and she’d sent him away! All because she was a little bit nervous. And he'd been trapped in that old chamber for hundreds of years…

“Oh? Meet a ghost on your castle tour, did you?”

“Don't be silly,” says Rina, her face flushing red. “But...I heard some ghost stories, though…”

“Well now,” her mother says, “the way I see it, a ghost can't be anything but lonely. Else they’d pass on.”

“But that's so sad!” Her mom just responds with a gentle smile, as if to remind her that neither of them believe in ghosts in the first place, and Rina drops the subject.

“It wasn't as bad as you're thinking,” says a voice by her side when she returns to her room. “It was lonely, and I was...aware of time passing, I suppose. But not down to the day, not like that. I'm sorry,” the ghost adds as Rina turns to face him, mouth agape. “I tried to leave, but it seems I'm bound to you now. I don't think I can.”

“Aah!” Bound to her? She'd regretted sending him away, sure, but bound to her? What did that even mean? “I'm sure you're a very nice ghost but I don't want to be possessed! We can--we can just talk, okay!”

“No, no, I won't possess you, I promise!” But her room already feels several degrees colder, the chill pricking at her scalp and tingling down her spine, and lonely or not, this is a real  _ ghost _ . She picks up her phone and dials.

“Jin! I need you to come over right away!” She can't tell her mom about this. Her best friend might tease her, but at least he’ll listen. “Remember how today was my class trip to Hiryuu Castle? Well, a ghost followed me home!” She waits for the older boy to stop laughing. “I'm serious, Jin! He's a nice ghost but he's definitely a ghost and he won't leave me alone!” Jin agrees to come over, even if he clearly doesn’t believe her yet..

“You’re using that to talk to someone.” The ghost is bending down in front of her now, peering at her phone. He reaches out to touch it but his hand passes right through. That man on the train walked through him, too, Rina remembers.

“How come you can touch me?” she asks.

“I suppose it’s because I’m bound to you,” he answers. “Your friend won’t be able to see me,” he adds.

“It won’t be hard to prove you’re here,” Rina counters. “Jin is smart. He’ll help figure out what to do.” At the ghost’s doubtful look, she adds, “I don’t want to have to go to a priest.”

“You still don’t want me here.”

“I don't want to be possessed!” But without her, would he go back to being alone in that chamber for hundreds more years? “I don’t want to send you away for good,” she says. “But it’s going to be really awkward if you have to be with me all the time!”

“Ah, I suppose you have a point there.” He sits beside her, and it’s weird--she can feel the cold brush of his robes against her, but there’s no weight on the bed at all.

“Okay.” She takes another deep breath. “Okay.” This is real, this is happening, and she has to deal with it. “Do you have a name? Do--do you remember your name?”

“Suwon,” he says, and he seems to grow more solid as he says it.

“I’m Rina,” she says. “Not Yona.” 

“Rina,” says Suwon. “I apologize for calling you after someone else. Let’s start anew.”

“I...I suppose ghosts get confused about the past a lot?”

Suwon shrugs. “No, I don’t think so. I remember...I remember everything, I think. Yona had red hair,” he adds. “You look like her. That’s all.” And that  _ is _ odd, because in all her life, Rina’s never heard of anyone else with bright red hair.

“And just how long—?” But then she hears the front door, and Mother sending Jin on up to see her. She opens her bedroom door for him--he’s carrying an armful of textbooks; he must have told Mother this was a study session--and he takes one look inside and bursts out laughing.

“You really did it,” he says. “You got someone to dress up as a ghost for you.”

“You--you can see him?”

“Not a bad prank!” he commends her. Suwon says nothing. He’s still sitting on the bed, frozen, staring up at Jin. “How'd she convince you to play along?” Jin asks, stepping closer. “Are you a reenactor or something? You've got the look down, it's really—” He breaks off mid-sentence as his hand, reaching out to examine the fabric of Suwon's sleeves, goes straight through the ghost’s arm.

“Told you,” says Rina, after letting Jin gape for a bit.


	3. Chapter 3

_ Poke. Poke. Swish, swish. _ An irritated scowl finally replaces the ghost’s wide-eyed stare. “Stop that,” he says, as Jin waves a hand through his chest again. 

“Jin, don't be rude,” Rina chides. “Suwon, this is Jin. Jin, Suwon.”

_ Poke. _ “Like the king?”

“King?” Rina asks. “You were a king?”  _ He's a ghost from a castle, of course he'd be a king.  _

“Well, there was a king called Suwon. Maybe your class hasn't reached that era yet.” Or maybe Rina just hadn't paid attention. Jin swishes a hand through Suwon's hair this time. “I don't see a crown…”

“I did reign as Kouka’s king,” says Suwon. He lifts a hand to block Jin’s, but of course it passes right through. “For a time.”

Jin steps back. “Wow. Rina,  _ how on earth _ did you manage to get followed home by the ghost of an ancient king?”

“‘Ancient king’ sounds so dreary,” Suwon comments.

“Ghosts are supposed to be dreary,” Jin counters. “And nine hundred years is pretty ancient.” 

“Nine hundred--” Even Suwon looks startled by that number. But the two of them sound so friendly already, their back-and-forth banter could fit right into any of Jin's conversations with his friends at school. Suwon doesn't look much older than Jin, either, which means…

...oh no…

Rina tries to brush that train of thought away. “I just wandered into an off-limits room in the castle and he was there,” she says, going back to Jin’s question. “It could have happened to anyone.”

“Just happened to wander in there?”

“I was trying to find my way to the gift shop but I got confused by the guide’s directions.”

“This guide,” says Jin. “Ancient guy, creepy vibes?”

“No, silly.” This wasn't some horror movie. “Actually, he was about our age, and very friendly.” He'd probably just been new to the job. “I didn't know Suwon was a ghost so I asked him to show me the way, and when I took his hand, he was able to come with me.” 

_ Poke. _ “How come Rina can touch you and I can't?”

“I...couldn't say.”

“No one else has been able to see Suwon at all so far,” says Rina. “I'm just glad you can do that much. Say,” she adds to Suwon. “You were staring at Jin when he first came in--does he look like someone you knew, too?”

“Yes,” Suwon admits. “But I suppose that doesn’t matter. A fresh start is better.”

“Yeah,” says Jin. “ _ I’m _ not some crusty old guy from history.” He picks up one of the textbooks he’d brought with him, a history book, and flops back on Rina’s beanbag chair, flipping through the pages. “Hm. It doesn’t say how you died.”

“Jin!” Rina turns back to Suwon. “You don’t have to say!” she hastily tells him. “Jin’s just being—”

“--himself,” says Suwon. “Don’t worry. It’s been--well, nine hundred years, I suppose. I have no more illusions about being alive.”

“It doesn’t say much about you at all,” Jin goes on. “It’s weird. Says your reign “marks the beginning of Kouka’s golden age” but it doesn’t say what you actually did.”

“Close that,” says Rina. “Suwon’s here  _ now _ , in the present. I’m going to have a ghost with me  _ all the time _ . I need to figure out how to deal with that.” But Mother calls them down to dinner before they can get any further.

Dinner, Rina supposes, is an awkward preview of what awaits her. Suwon stands between Jin and Rina--no chair for him, of course--and makes comments about how delicious the food  looks, asks questions about the kitchen appliances...Rina doesn’t want to ignore him, but she can’t acknowledge him in front of Mother, either. And then, after dinner, Mother gently but firmly sends Jin home. Rina and Suwon are alone again.

He spends the rest of the evening asking questions about modern technology, about where they live--some questions about Jin, too. But even though Rina was the one who said to set history aside, it feels different now. Like they’re ignoring something big. “It’s weird that you’re a king,” she finally says. “Your Majesty.”

A pained look crosses his face. “Don’t...you don’t have to call me that. I was never your king.” And that’s true enough--Kouka doesn’t even have kings anymore. 

Maybe after they’ve spent more time together, he’ll be more open about his...historical circumstances. Right now, Rina can’t even try to surreptitiously look things up on her phone without Suwon trying to sneak a peek. “I need to sleep,” she finally says, then, “I don’t know if I can, with you here with me.” A distant smile appears on Suwon’s face. “What?”

“Oh, just...remembering. Shall I hold your hand while you sleep?” But no matter how friendly he is, Suwon’s touch is still ice-cold.


	4. Chapter 4

School is as awkward as Rina expected, from the moment her ghostly companion sits next to her in an empty seat only for a classmate to sit right on top of him, to his murmurs of  _ that’s not right _ during history, to his continuous whispered requests to explain the book that they’re discussing in lit class.

“I’ll explain the whole story later!” she finally tells him. “Can’t you see I really can’t talk right now?” When the whole class turns to stare at her, she realizes just how explosive her reply was...and that Suwon wasn't the only one who just asked her a question. So did the teacher.

So that's detention. And the school day isn't half over. She ignores Suwon the rest of the morning.

At lunchtime, Jin finds her, and  _ he  _ chats with Suwon--she’s forced to listen as Suwon explains what happened, as Jin laughs to hear the story. “Aw, poor Rina,” he teases. “You've never been a delinquent before. I'll wait for you,” he promises. “We can still walk home together.” It almost could have been sweet, if he didn’t go on to explain the novel to Suwon in full detail.

“I  _ am _ sorry,” Suwon assures her. “What will your punishment entail?”

Rina sighs. “It won’t be that bad. I think they’ll just have us clean the school grounds. I’ll miss the martial arts club, though,” she adds, then immediately regrets saying it as Suwon’s eyes light up.

“You study martial arts?”

“Just...for fun. You--you probably know how to fight with a sword for real, in a war, right? This is just a sport.”

“But that's good! I wouldn't want you to see a war.”

“Knowing how to use a sword wouldn't do much good as far as that's concerned, anyway.”

“Oh? I can hardly believe that your modern era has done away with war.”

“No…just found more effective weapons.”

“Ah.” He nods in satisfaction. “To go along with your phones and airplanes.” They'd seen a plane in the sky while walking to school, and Suwon had been fascinated. To immediately recognize their use in warfare...but he'd been a king, after all. “Is Hak in this ‘martial arts club’ as well?”

Rina is startled. “Who?” Then, “oh--you mean Jin?” Suwon had admitted straightaway that Jin, like Rina, looked like someone he’d known, but this was the first time he’d named him.

“Yes...ah, sorry. Jin. Does he train with a spear?”

“M-hm,” Rina answers. Did this ‘Hak’ fight with a spear as well? “Fuuga has a long tradition of spear-fighting, so it’s popular in the club.” Suwon nods,  no doubt more familiar with that tradition than Rina is herself.

Cleaning up trash around the school wouldn’t be a problem, except that Rina is assigned to work with two older boys who she knows are troublemakers. They know who she is, too--one of them used to follow her around, making comments about her hair--and this time, Jin isn’t around. “So, too good to talk to us, but not too good for detention!” Rina doesn’t reply. There’s nothing to gain here. “What was it for? Talking back to a teacher, I suppose.” At that, Rina flushes bright red, because of course he’s right.

“Be careful,” Suwon warns her. “These two give off a bad feeling.”

“They’re just teasing,” Rina mutters. “I can put up with it for a few hours.” They eventually wander off, leaving Rina to work on her own, but honestly, that’s preferable. It’s when they find her again--late in the day, when most of the teachers have left, and on the outer edge of the school grounds, that she feels that nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach, too.

“Hey there, little girl. Want to get in some real trouble?”

“No, thank you,” Rina says firmly.

And then before she knows what’s happening, the taller of the two grabs her shoulder. Suwon moves to push him away but of course he passes straight through him, and his look of frustrated rage is a sight to behold.

“We’ll have some fun,” says the older boy--his carefree smile says he already knows he’s going to have his way--and Rina twists out of his grip, reaching down to grab a fallen branch from the ground.

“Yona. The best thing to do right now is to run away.” Suwon is desperately calm, but now Rina is mad.

“They’ll just go after someone else!”

“Oh... you think you can use a sword, don't you?” Rina doesn't, she knows she can't, but what else can she do?”

“Step left.” Rina follows Suwon's direction without thinking, narrowly evading the boy's blow. She lifts her makeshift weapon to defend against his next attempt, and it works--it’s not fencing, but it feels natural--until the other boy she’d forgotten was there pulls her down from behind.

Then she stands up. She’s not thinking about it but it isn’t until she spins back and knocks the second boy off his feet that she realizes  _ she’s _ not moving at all. Suwon is--the ghostly outline of his arms with their long draping sleeves set over hers, moving with her,  _ for _ her, and instead of the stick in her hands she sees an ornate, ancient sword. Rina stiffens when she realizes what’s happening--but Suwon keeps moving for her, one more blow striking at the first boy, and then--then he’s just holding her hand, pulling her away.

“Yona,” he says. “Yona, I—”

“You possessed me. You--you really possessed me!” But if he hadn’t, then who knew what those guys would have done to her?

“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know I could!”

“Don’t  _ ever _ do that again. But...thank you.” He stops. Stares at her. “You’re calling me Yona again. Was Yona someone you wanted to protect?”

Suwon looks upwards at the sky. “I...once cared for her very much, yes.”

“Was...was she someone you failed to protect?” He looks away and doesn't reply, and that tells Rina all she needs to know.


End file.
